Farne Islands puffin numbers show drop of nearly a quarter

A SURVEY of puffins on the internationally important Farne Islands has shown a drop in numbers of almost a quarter.

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The National Trust, which looks after the islands off the Northumberland coast, said the long-term trend needed to be monitored and cautioned against interpreting it as a sudden population decline.

The number of breeding pairs recorded in the survey fell from 50,103 in 2024 to 38,500 this year, a drop of 23%.

Ben McCarthy, head of nature conservation at the National Trust, said: "Counting puffins is a notoriously complex task.